Ethereum's Pectra Upgrade Falters on Holesky Testnet

Ethereum's Pectra upgrade went live on the Holesky testnet on Monday, but failed to finalize as expected. The upgrade, which combines 11 major Ethereum improvement proposals (EIPs), was activated at 21:55 UTC (4:55 p.m. ET), but did not initially achieve finality according to blockchain data.

Finality is a state in which, once a transaction is confirmed and added to a block, it becomes immutable and cannot be reversed. A testnet, such as Holesky, is a network that copies the main Ethereum blockchain and is used to test upgrades or new code before they are deployed to the main network.

It is not immediately clear why the Pectra upgrade did not finalize on Holesky. Ethereum developers were discussing the issue over the Eth R&D Discord channel on Monday. This is not the first time an upgrade has failed to finalize on an Ethereum test network. In January 2024, the Dencun upgrade did not initially finalize on the Goerli testnet.

The Pectra hard fork includes several significant upgrades. At its core is EIP-7702, which aims to improve the user experience of crypto wallets by allowing them to have some smart contract capabilities. This is part of a broader strategy to bring account abstraction to Ethereum, making wallets more user-friendly.

Another key proposal, EIP-7251, will allow validators to increase the maximum amount they can stake from 32 to 2,048 ETH. This is intended to simplify the process for validators who stake more than their initial 32 ETH, which currently requires spreading that amount across multiple validators.

Holesky is the first of two testnets to run a simulation of Pectra. The next test is scheduled for the Sepolia testnet on March 5. However, developers may delay this test depending on the scale of the issue encountered on Holesky. After successful tests on both testnets, developers will set a final date for the upgrade to be activated on the mainnet.

Pectra was originally planned to be Ethereum's biggest upgrade to date, but developers decided to split the original package into two due to its ambitious scope. This is the first major change to the blockchain in almost a year.